Risclarity, his new program, does what other programs doing risk analysis have done but takes it much farther, evaluating risk according to 18 categories, such as valuation risk, liquidity risk and counterparty risk, etc.
When he presents his first round of reports for Risclarity in July, he hopes to have three clients on board. “Part of the reason I’m getting into this space is because most of the stuff out there is too expensive,” Higgins says. “I’m starting in the family office space but my ambition is to take it all the way to the consumer to analyze IRA portfolios."
He is talking with Andrea Bornstein, a colleague from myCFO, about combining Risclarity with InProfile, her program that combines everything from details about clients’ investment appetite to details about their family that can help form an investment advisor profile. The merged companies would provide a client profiling and risk management tool. Higgins’ mother, Gloria, is providing input on what a CPA would like to see included, such as information on taxes. His father introduced him to forensic accounting so he could consider the risk of fraud.
Rick Sr. closed RT Higgins & Associates in 2010. He continues to work as a partner with Eide Bailly, an accounting firm. Gloria sold her multi-family office to GenSpring in 2009. She left at the end of 2011. The GenSpring office in Denver closed at the end of January 2013. Gloria Higgins is now consulting to multi-family offices and serving as the executive director of EPIC, a nonprofit that promotes and supports preschool education. She also works with Higgins on the design of Risclarity.
Not surprising that Higgins is into binary numbers. He married his wife, Lesley, on 10-10-10. They live with their 16-month-old son, Will, at 101 Enchanted Road in Golden, Colo. Higgins doesn’t mind being called a nerd. In fact, he likes it. “I love being a nerd and a geek,” he says. He also likes the fact that he can fit in anywhere: at a black-tie dinner, wearing his cowboy hat at a rodeo, or just hanging out with other nerds. His LinkedIn profile says that Higgins’ work on Digital Partner “firmly placed him at the heart of what became known as the technological renaissance in wealth management.” But he’s only gotten started solving problems. Stay tuned.
Mary Rowland can be reached at [email protected]. She has been a business and personal finance journalist for 30 years and has written two books for financial advisors: Best Practices and In Search of the Perfect Model.